Townsville Supercars: Waters tops rare wet session

Damp conditions for the opening 30-minute practice marked the first meaningful wet running in the 11-year history of the Townsville event.

Initially it was Chaz Mostert who best dealt with the slippery circuit, the Tickford driver leading the way as times dipped into the 1m25s.

By the midway point slightly improved conditions saw times dropping into the 1m23s, Holden stars Mark Winterbottom (1m23.341s) and Jamie Whincup (1m23.931s) leading the way.

With 10 minutes to go a number of drivers sampled a slick tyre, although initially Winterbottom's wet tyre time wasn't under threat.

That was until Waters appeared right at the death, charging to the top with a 1m21.639s on a slick tyre.

Winterbottom ended the session second thanks to his earlier time, followed by Nick Percat and Will Davison.

Tim Slade, one of the drivers who ran a slick tyre, was fifth, one spot clear of Garry Rogers Motorsport super sub Michael Caruso.

Whincup slipped back to seventh, Lee Holdsworth survived a brush with the Turn 6 wall to finish eighth, with Fabian Coulthard and Rick Kelly rounding out the Top 10.

Scott McLaughlin was just 14th quickest, while Shane van Gisbergen – who didn't run wets at all – was 22nd and last of the cars that turned a lap.

The two Erebus drivers didn't even make it onto the timesheets, the team electing to save its grooved tyres and keep David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale in the garage.

"I was quite happy, it looked pretty scary out there,” said Reynolds.

“We were looking to go out with about 10 minutes to go, but we didn’t want to burn up a set of tyres and whatnot.”

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'21.6395
2	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'23.3096	1.6701
3	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'23.4777	1.8382
4	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'23.6766	2.0371
5	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'23.6770	2.0375
6	33	Michael Caruso	Holden Commodore ZB	1'23.8631	2.2236
7	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'23.9310	2.2915
8	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'24.1113	2.4718
9	333	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'24.1616	2.5221
10	100	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'24.1664	2.5269
11	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'24.3198	2.6803
12	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'24.3285	2.6890
13	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'24.3491	2.7096
14	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'24.4381	2.7986
15	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'24.5887	2.9492
16	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'25.0435	3.4040
17	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'25.3306	3.6911
18	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'25.4764	3.8369
19	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'25.7364	4.0969
20	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'26.0682	4.4287
21	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'26.2827	4.6432
22	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'27.1361	5.4966